FERNANDO VALENZUELA
Fernando Valenzuela (born November 1, 1960) is a Mexican former Major League Baseball pitcher. During a 17-year baseball career, he achieved his greatest success with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1980-1990, and went on to pitch for five more major league teams. In 1981, the 20-year-old Valenzuela took Los Angeles (and Major League Baseball) by storm, winning his first 8 decisions and leading the Dodgers to the World Series. With his youthful charm, devastating screwball, “Ruthian physique”, and a connection with Los Angeles’ large Latino community, Valenzuela touched off an early ’80s craze dubbed “Fernandomania”. Since 2003, Valenzuela has worked as a Spanish-language color commentator for the Dodgers. (More from Wikipedia)
Totally unremarked upon in all this time, as far as I know, is that Ritchie Valens’ real last name is Valenzuela, the same as the legendary pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers Fernando Valenzuela. In 1981, Valenzuela caught the imagination of the whole country when he won his first 8 games as a starting pitcher in his rookie season for the Dodgers, including 5 shutouts. If the season hadn’t been cut short by the baseball strike that year, there is no telling how dominant he might have been; but to this day, he is still the only player in Major League Baseball history to have been awarded the Rookie of the Year award, the Cy Young Award, the Silver Slugger Award, and a World Series championship, all in the same season. While “Fernandomania” was a distant memory to most people by the time La Bamba came out, Fernando Valenzuela had one of his best seasons the previous year (1986) and nearly won the Cy Young Award again.
(January 2011)
